Picasso painted this still life as part of a series of panels intended to decorate the library of the Brooklyn mansion of American painter, critic, and arts patron Hamilton Easter Field (1873–1922). By 1915, when the men abandoned the project, Picasso had completed at least eight works, including this one, which was intended as an overdoor panel. Befitting a library, Picasso inserted, at upper right, a reference to the novel La Dame aux Camélias (1848) by Alexandre Dumas fils, and on the lower right, the initials of his patron. A pipe rack can be seen at upper left.
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Inscription: Signed (lower right, at a later date): Picasso
[Galerie Georges Moos, Geneva, until 1951, stock no. 7440, sold on October 8, 1951 for $8,000 to Perls]; [Perls Galleries (Klaus G. Perls), New York, from 1951; stock no. 5021]; Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, New York (until 1997; their gift to MMA)
New York. Perls Galleries. "The Perls Galleries Collection of Modern French Paintings," March 3–April 5, 1952, no. 123.
New York. Perls Galleries. "The Perls Galleries Collection of Modern French Paintings," March 9–April 11 and April 13–May 16, 1953, no. 133.
New York. Perls Galleries. "Picasso-Braque-Gris: Cubism to 1918," January 4–February 6, 1954, no. 5.
New York. Perls Galleries. "The Perls Galleries Collection of Modern French Paintings," March 8–May 15, 1954, no. 172.
New York. Perls Galleries. "The Perls Galleries Collection of Modern French Paintings," March 14–April 23, 1955, no. 162.
Arts Club of Chicago. "An Exhibition of Cubism on the Occasion of the Fortieth Anniversary of the Arts Club of Chicago," October 3–November 4, 1955, no. 23.
New York. Perls Galleries. "The Perls Galleries Collection of Modern French Paintings," January 3–February 5, 1956, no. 187.
New York. Saidenberg Gallery. "Picasso: An American Tribute. Cubism," April 25–May 12, 1962, no. 4.
Tokyo. National Museum of Modern Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," May 23–July 5, 1964, no. 16.
Kyoto. National Museum of Modern Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," July 10–August 2, 1964, no. 16.
Nagoya. Prefectural Museum of Art. "Pikaso/Picasso," August 8–18, 1964, no. 16.
New York. Perls Galleries. "Pablo Picasso: Highlights in Retrospect," October 12–November 20, 1965, no. 3 (as "Pipes, Tasse, Cafetière, Carafon," lent by a private collection).
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. "Picasso: Two Concurrent Retrospective Exhibitions," February 8–March 26, 1967, no. 16.
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective," May 22–September 16, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p. 144).
New York. Museum of Modern Art. "Picasso and Braque: Pioneering Cubism," September 24, 1989–January 16, 1990, unnumbered cat. (p. 67).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Painters in Paris: 1895–1950," March 8–December 31, 2000, extended to January 14, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 69).
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Picasso and the School of Paris: Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," September 14–November 24, 2002, no. 16.
Tokyo. Bunkamura Museum of Art. "Picasso and the School of Paris: Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," December 7, 2002–March 9, 2003, no. 16.
Madrid. Fundación Juan March. "Celebración del arte: Medio siglo de la Fundación Juan March," October 7, 2005–January 15, 2006, no. 17.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Masterpieces of French Art Deco," August 4, 2009–January 23, 2011, no catalogue [on view until September 28, 2009].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 27–August 1, 2010, no. 55.
Santa Barbara Museum of Art. "Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment 1910-1912," September 17, 2011–January 8, 2012 (ill., frontispiece).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn," September 14, 2023–January 14, 2024, unnumbered cat. (pl. 12).
Christian Zervos. Pablo Picasso. Vol. 2b, Works from 1912 to 1917. Paris, 1942, p. 317, no. 726, ill.
Christian Zervos, ed. "Peintures de Picasso et de Matisse." Cahiers d'art 20–21 (1946), p. 428.
Franco Russoli and Fiorella Minervino. L'opera completa di Picasso cubista. Milan, 1972, pp. 105–6, no. 372, ill.
Pierre Daix and Joan Rosselet. Picasso, The Cubist Years, 1907–1916: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and Related Works. Boston, 1979, p. 268, no. 417, ill.
Pierre Daix. Cubists and Cubism. Geneva, 1982, pp. 63, 169.
Patricia Dee Leighten. "Picasso: Anarchism and Art, 1897–1914." PhD diss., Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, 1983, p. 234.
Lewis C. Kachur. "Themes in Picasso's Cubism, 1907–1918." PhD diss., Columbia University, 1988, p. 66.
Doreen Bolger. "Hamilton Easter Field and His Contribution to American Modernism." American Art Journal 20, no. 2 (1988), p. 87.
Rose Safran. "Picasso and Ogunquit's Hamilton Easter Field." York Weekly (December 13, 1989).
Josep Palau i Fabre. Picasso: Cubism, 1907–1917. New York, 1990, pp. 228–29, 506, no. 629, ill.
Pierre Cabanne. Le siècle de Picasso. Vol. 1, La naissance du Cubisme (1881–1912). Rev. ed. (1st ed., 1975). Paris, 1992, p. 370.
John Richardson with the collaboration of Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 2, 1907–1917. New York, 1996, pp. 169–72, ill.
J[ason]. E[dward]. K[aufman]. "Perls Adds Gems to the Met." Art Newspaper no. 61 (July–August 1996), p. 14.
Carol Vogel. "Met is Given 13 Works Worth Over $60 Million." New York Times (May 20, 1996), p. C11.
Stella Paul. Twentieth-Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Resource for Educators. New York, 1999, pp. 23–25, ill. (detail and bw) and ill. p. 22 (color), calls it "Still Life with Pipes".
Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot, and Marie-Laure Bernadac. The Ultimate Picasso. New York, 2000, pp. 154, 156, 509, fig. 341.
Julia May Boddewyn in Michael FitzGerald. Picasso and American Art. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 2006, pp. 369–71, 373.
Francisco Calvo Serraller et al., ed. Picasso: Tradition and Avant-Garde. Exh. cat., Museo Nacional del Prado. Madrid, 2006, p. 142.
William Grimes. "Klaus Perls, Art Dealer Who Gave Picassos to the Met, Dies at 96." New York Times (June 5, 2008), p. B6.
Gary Tinterow inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 12.
Sabine Rewald inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, pp. 156–58, no. 55, ill. (color).
Lucy Belloli inPicasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Gary Tinterow and Susan Alyson Stein. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2010, p. 158.
Anna Jozefacka in Anna Jozefacka with Lauren Rosati. Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, pp. 43, 46–49, 101 nn. 83, 85, colorpl. 12 and ill. p. 4 (color detail).
Anna Jozefacka and Lauren Rosati inPicasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, pp. 84, 93, 102 n. 13.
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France)
1929
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